Browns’ Benard feels ‘blessed’ after accident

BEREA, Ohio – As sweat beads streaked his cheeks, defensive end Marcus Benard looked out at the green practice fields behind the Browns’ training facility.

For a time, he didn’t know if he’d see them again.

He made it back.

Seven months ago, an instant of recklessness on a motorcycle nearly took Benard’s life. At 26, a highly paid professional athlete just tapping into his potential, Benard, who had beaten the odds and made an NFL roster as an undrafted free agent, almost threw everything away and left three young sons without their father.

Benard was lucky. He lived and learned.

“I appreciate life,” he said. “And I appreciate the sport that I’m playing and my responsibilities to it. It’s a blessing and I feel like it’s a plan.

“I’m very happy to be here.”

Benard spoke to reporters Wednesday for the first time since his harrowing experience.

On Oct. 10, Benard had just left practice when he crashed his three-wheel Can-Am Spyder into a guardrail on Interstate 71. Brooklyn Police estimated that the 6-foot-2, 260-pound Benard, who led the Browns in sacks the previous season, was thrown an estimated 80 yards before coming to a stop.

He broke his right hand and sustained other unspecified injuries that required a three-day hospital stay at The Cleveland Clinic. Benard declined to discuss any specifics about his horrific accident or other injuries. The only visible reminder of his traumatic ordeal is a long, thick scar tracing from the middle of his right hand past his wrist.

Benard was asked if the wreck had changed him.

He paused, perhaps searching for the proper words.

“It did,” he said. “But you live and you learn from everything. You walk up stairs and you stub your toe and you say I’m going to pick my feet up this time. So I learned a valuable lesson, just the appreciation of life. I feel like it was a blessing and you learn your lessons.

“Life’s chaotic, but the football field is where we’re comfortable, where I’m comfortable and it was just a joy to be able to have that chance again and to be able to be on the team.”

Benard expressed his gratitude to the Browns, whom he said were there “from Day One.” The team could have released him following the accident because it was a nonfootball-related injury, but the Browns chose to pay him the final 12 game checks on his $525,000 salary.

“Words can’t even describe how wonderful they’ve been to me,” he said. “I will forever appreciate the Browns for what they did for me.”